YOU’VE BEEN HOOVERED

POLITICS IN AMERICA HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE POLARIZED, BUT MANY OF BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE AGREE THAT JAMES COMEY HAS TO GO

BY JOSH SAUL AND MAX KUTNER

LAST FALL, James Comey stood accused of throwing a presidential election. And he allegedly did it with just a letter.

On October 28, less than two weeks before American voters went to the polls, the FBI director wrote to Congress, saying the bureau had discovered new emails related to its long-running investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server when she was secretary of state. In July, he had declared there was no evidence of any illegal activity by the Democratic presidential candidate, so this announcement ripped open a wound that had nearly healed over. Both the right and the left screeched in outrage, calling for either Clinton or Comey to be strung up. In The Washington Post, two former U.S. deputy attorney generals, Jamie Gorelick and Larry Thompson, wrote, “We now have real-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality-TV of federal criminal investigation.” They called Comey’s actions “antithetical to the interests of justice, putting a thumb on the scale of this election and damaging our democracy.”

“Comey’s got this God complex.”

Democrats were already sputtering with rage that Comey had gone all schoolmarm on Clinton back in July, questioning her judgment and trustworthiness. “He tried to portray himself as above the fray, someone who is not attuned to politics, someone who does not even reside in the same political universe as everyone else, that he’s holier than thou,” says a former Obama administration oicial. (Several people who spoke to Newsweek about Comey asked to remain anonymous so they could freely discuss controversial and sometimes confidential matters.)

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SPLITTING HEADACHE: IS FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY FIR TO TAKE ON TRUMP
Many say FBI Director James Comey torpedoed the presidential aspirations of
Hillary Clinton, and he may soon do the same for Donald Trump. As the bureau’s investigation of Russian interference in the election and the possible collusion of Trump’s camp builds toward a confrontation, America needs to
know if their top G-man is a righteous warrior or a self-righteous prig.